Having no idea what to write today, it happily happened that I mentioned to my cousin, who fronts rock show Heavier than Time between 7-9 every Tuesday, that (via a stop off at the cash point) I take 3200 steps to work. Naturally he suggested a blog post may be in the offing and he’d be right as I got inspired.
Now why? WHY? count my steps to work, well why not, Sherlock Holmes said, and I paraphrase greatly, ‘people look but they don’t observe’. well now I know longer need to pay attention walking to work anymore as I am wholly in tune with how far I have to go.
Also uttered on tonight’s show were the words (paraphrased as I forgot them) ‘all great journeys started with some steps’, this put me in mind of The Hobbit where something like that is said and as a statement you really can’t fault its logic.
Something else that people criminally, in my view, don’t pay any attention to, is the blank pages at the beginning in the end of the book, I put it to you m’luds and ladies that these pages are an integral part of the reading experience.
The beginning pages are the calm before the storm, as it were, but the end ones are, for me the more interesting. After finishing any book, but particularly a good book, you need that lull to take it all in and ask yourself, on reflection how good was that? Double that up with the brief pause needed before you immediately pick up a new book and I would say that those underrated pages perform an integral service to the reading experience.
And whilst we are tenuously on the subject, who would actually take a leaf out of anyone’s book? I know it is a figurative term but I would never offer anyone a random page out of my books, including the blank ones. Unless you use your books to press leaves and interestingly my cousin received a book off of me once that had pressed leaves in it that someone must have left in there before I acquired it. Right full circle conversation achieved so I shall leave you to it, thank you and good night!
Book to the Future 
Very interesting post! You wrote know instead of no, an interesting Freudian slip/play on words when you’re talking about no more knowing. So watch your step buddy.
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I’m not sure if i did that intentionally or not, Tuesday is a long time ago, so i shall claim I meant it and hide when people say otherwise.
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Counting one’s steps could be handy for a number of reasons…if the number changes unexpectedly, it could serve as a timely warning that one’s legs are changing length in mysterious ways.
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Yes either that or I am going the wrong way completely which has been known to happen occasionally.
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Very entertaining ramble there! You can turn anything into gold with your turns of phrase and sense of humpur. Brilliant!
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I went with an idea, it was a strange idea but it was even stranger at 6:45 in the morning, still got you a plug in too, which always makes me happy in a commercial sellout type of way.
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I like the post. A story is a journey, a journey is a story, the blanks are important. Spaces between words are blank. I’m not a Buddhist though. Tony Harrison said something similar. He wasn’t a Buddhist either.
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He has a good combination of words though, I haven’t read much of his stuff, so….more added to the TBR pile.
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Interesting bit on the empty pages in the beginning & end of a book.
I think I once used a few of tose pages to press some roses. They have since been pitched. Don’t need dead flowers…
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I bet they added to that lovely book scent and made it more enticing to open the book. Interesting, I wonder if anyone has experimented with this more thoroughly….?
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I admit it openly to all of the blogoverse…I love the way you write. Doesn’t matter the topic. You always grab my imagination….that sounds rather harsh…more like your leading and I follow and I all ways enjoy the journey! 😀 Ahh books…I have to smell a book first. I think I just made myself open to ridicule…but it’s true. New books, old books….just not icky smelling books. I think your reference had to do with pressed flowers in books…the scent of books made me think of that….someone could graciously come to my resuce and tell me I’m not the only one who does this! 😉
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Well now you mention it I so that all the time, I do it with magazines too and the newspapers chips from the chippy come in so feel not alone. I like to take people to random places but I’m not the only one, I know a certain person not a million miles away who can take me to places i hadn’t considered before ad conjure some haunting and fascinating to name but two adjectives. I wonder where we shall take each other next….
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Interesting stuff as always. This may sound weird, but I usually count the steps of the stairs in my university and company. If it is a tiled floor, I also count the marble squares or tiles. I’m crazy, I know.
Good point of view with the blank end pages. It actually helps after I get emotional trauma from a book. However, as someone working in a publishing company, there are other reasons why we see certain number of blank pages or adverts after a book. For my journals, our printers require each issue or book to be in even working – meaning that the total number of pages for an issue or book must be divisible by four. If not, we add filler adverts or blank pages.
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it’s interesting to find a reason for the blank pages, I had never previously considered the business sense of it, preferring to hide in the romance of it all. I find it fascinating to hear the proper reason though. Crazy is a term that ‘normal’ people who don’t understand the sheer ingenuity of the eccentrics.
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Just love your words, as always, that’s all!
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I love your words too and especially these ones although yo say many good combinations of words, so it is difficult for me to compare. You are great.
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